


Dream of Midnight

by BurningGuardian



Series: Dream of Midnight [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Existential Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22048201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningGuardian/pseuds/BurningGuardian
Summary: A Guardian finds herself awakened on a distant moon, soon she begins to question everything about the world she's found herself in. Scared and terrified of what lies ahead of her she begins searching for her own personal meaning in life.
Series: Dream of Midnight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587016
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

_Guardians never talk about the pain of coming back for the first time. We always feel pain, but coming back for the first time, it's a searing ache that we'll never forget. It's like experiencing your own atoms being shredded by a black hole's event horizon and then reassembled for an eternity._ _And people wonder why some guardians hate their ghosts._

The Guardian awoke in the decrepit, broken remains of an apartment. Life and death breathed into her body by the Ghost that floated there above her, watching her gasp desperately for her first reincarnated breaths. It would take a minute, oxygen needed to be absorbed, and her blood needed to flow throughout her body so she could escape the terrifying feeling of asphyxiation. When she was fully cognizant and beginning to take in her surroundings, she looked at the Ghost in abject horror.

"W-What are you...?", She asked the floating specter hovering in front of her as she stood.

"I'm Scylla, your Ghost. You've been asleep for a long time, Guardian. We have to get moving, the Hive will be here soon.", The orb spoke back to her in a disembodied, metallic, and feminine voice.

"The what...?"

"The Hive, enemies of humanity. I'll explain later, but we have to move." Scylla responded in almost a hushed tone. "I'll lead the way out of here, I believe I saw an old weapon you could use as I came in." Scylla led the Guardian out of the burnt room and into equally destroyed living quarters. The windows were broken but looked out into the pitch-black night of city long since dead. The orb continued to float forward out of the apartment and into a dark hallway, at least the Ghost lit the surrounding area enough for her to see her way.

It was colder than she'd first realized, the adrenaline from her resurrection beginning to wear off ever so slightly, she grew curious about her whereabouts. "Where are we?" The Guardian inquired.

"New Chicago on Europa. A long way from The Last City." Scylla responded as she led the Guardian down the stairwell. They made their way slowly to the ground floor before finally, Scylla showed the Guardian to a broken desk, next to it an old pistol of some kind.

The Guardian reached down to grasp it and raised it to examine its contents. 3 bullets, hopefully, that would be enough to kill these 'Hive' Scylla spoke of. She chambered a round and pressed forward and out onto the street, the night here incredibly dark, in the distance some faint electronics still whirred and dim-lit the road. There the Guardian saw something that chilled her down to her bones. A contorted and disfigured humanoid figure stood there. She hadn't been paying attention and tripped on a deep crack in the asphalt, causing her to yelp, she just managed to catch herself and raise her eye level back to the street. The figure twitched, and the monstrous head turned to pierce her gaze. It began immediately began to charge at her.

"Incoming!" Scylla warned quickly. The Guardian fumbled to get a good grip of the pistol as the thrall closed the distance between them. She managed to level a shot and fired. A narrow miss, the Guardian cringed as she felt terror begin to set in. She leveled herself again and fired again, the shot landing squarely in its chest, but still, it charged at her, nonetheless. The Guardian terrified by the aberration approaching her; she leveled herself one last time and took a deep breath. A Gunshot, and then silence for a moment before the bullet casing tattered softly to the ground beside her, the squealing beast silent. She blinked as her eyes adjusted and settled upon the faintly lit corpse of the creature. It's body quickly withering away into dust. "Let's keep moving. There's an abandoned spaceport not far from here, maybe we can find a ship."

"I think I'm beginning to understand..." The Guardian responded and sighed as she took a breath. She followed the Ghost continuing down the road for some time. As they walked, the woman began to look around the dead city. 'How could something that must've been so vibrant once be so cold and ruined now?' Still, though, there was beauty in the way that plant life had begun to revive the metropolis. As they neared the outskirts of the city and the skyscrapers became warehouses and homes, the flowers and vegetation began to glow iridescently in the night.

In the distance, the Guardian could now see a mechanical spire coming from a large building, probably the traffic control for the spaceport that Scylla mentioned. She returned her attention to the path they began to take up the hill the port was on. The only thing that the Guardian could hear was the mild whirring of Scylla moving and the ghostly howling of the forceful wind. Then for a moment, she swore she heard a skidding of something hard against the ground behind her. She quickly turned to see what it was, the cracked concrete was empty, but the fear began to put her on edge. Scylla turned back to look at her curiously.

"Hear something?" Scylla asked calmly and began to look around their surroundings.

"Yeah, it sounded like something was following us for a second. I couldn't quite make it out." The Guardian gulped with fear in her voice for a second. Immediately, she heard some rustling above them on the ridge beside them. She looked up to see the same type of creature from before jumping down on top of her. It's gaping maw beginning to try and gnaw at her flesh, her arms immediately began to try and push the monstrosity off of her, but the creature seemed extremely physically capable. She couldn't find a weakness on it to exploit immediately either as her rational mind began to think a thousand miles a minute to come up with something.

She tried punching at it to no immediate effect. Her Ghost tried calling to her at that moment, but as she began to feel her muscles stripped from the bone, she cried from a mixture of pain and terror. Right as she began to see black, something inside of her called out to grasp it, and she reached her hand around the aberration to do so.

She could feel every heartbeat, every breath as her in fire cascaded out of her body and into her hand, forming a flaming blade. Her eyes shot open, and she sunk the blade deep into the creature, it's body evaporating above her. She laid there for a minute, panting as her mind was racing, beginning to comprehend what had just happened. She just stared forward, looking at the midnight sky and stars. Scylla came to her and began to glow with a dark blue light as she could feel her wounds heal, and her blood beginning to flow through her veins. Soon she would return to her feet and thank Scylla for treating her injuries.

When they entered the spaceport, the Guardian began searching the complex room by room and hangar by hangar for any remaining ships until she stumbled into one. The vessel was partially rusted, but it retained looked sturdy as ever. Scylla scanned it and disappeared inside for a minute while she evaluated its flight capabilities.

"It's not pretty, but it'll get us to the City just fine," Scylla called out.

The Guardian quickly found her way into the craft and seated herself appropriately as Scylla began to explain to her how to pilot the vessel. Soon enough, the engines roared, and the ship shook profoundly as it pulled itself out and away from the spaceport and into the sky and towards the stars.

They flew for quite some time, slowly headed for the city. Scylla spoke briefly if only to guide the Guardian. After a long silence, she finally spoke. "Guardian, have you thought of a name you'd like? I know it's a tough decision, but it's an important one."

After the Guardian thought for a couple of moments, she responded. "Call me Midnight


	2. Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finding herself among others like herself, Midnight questions more and more about the world around her.

_Are we really the same person as we were before our Ghosts? We have no memories of our previous lives. We have no name until we make one. The only thing we share is a face. All we are is a shadow and a remnant of a time since passed. Maybe we're the Ghosts after all._

The week following Midnight and Scylla's arrival at The Last City and the Traveler was a long one. It was perplexing for her to understand the concept of Light and its properties in both restoration and destruction. A group of Guardians, the Warlocks, tried to explain the many complexities of the world she'd sheepishly entered. The enemies of the Traveler, The City's hope for humanity, and the many duties of a Guardian. Though at first Midnight's mind raced, and she found herself uncomfortable, she agreed to stay and try to figure herself out.

She was debriefed about her arrival and resurrection, after describing the events with the 'Thrall' she was pronounced a Hunter.

Her Warlock teacher explained, "Hunters are our eyes in the solar system. They are wild explorers, cunning warriors, and excellent sharpshooters. They are the scalpel and the delicate fingers that guide it."

"Not to be rude," Midnight responded with a twinge of unease. "But I don't have good aim, I'm not the most cunning... I don't really know who I am or what I am good at."

"Perhaps this could be a good starting point for you then. Hunter's explore the whole solar system, perhaps you can explore who you are in the process... Anyway, that's it for the day. Have a good evening, Midnight." The Warlock left.

While she lingered in the tower, she discovered that while the world turned and the ages passed, the world, culture, and its people were all foreign to her. She found herself disassociated from the ones she was supposedly meant to protect. Why were her duty and destiny set before her by people who knew nothing about her? Most new Guardians face this challenge, and its something they can only solve themselves. Either way, she would have to begin somewhere, soon the Vanguard assigned her first-ever mission.

New Guardians are often paired up with fireteam leaders, often called Sherpas by fellow Guardians, that can teach them the ropes and keep them safe against deadly enemies. Midnight had been given the essential items by the Vanguard, some armor, a couple of weapons, and a quick land vehicle called a Sparrow. She planned on spending the night before her first mission training, primarily target practice.

Scylla didn't speak while she trained, she only watched curiously. Midnight seemed to be firing frantically, her shots were on no discernable beat, and she handled the pistol with a hint of frustration. Not wanting to interrupt her Guardian, Scylla remained in nervous silence as Midnight only continued to miss her target. Eventually, she grumbled beneath her breath and set the pistol to her side.

"What's wrong?" Scylla finally asked with a hint of what Midnight could only describe as concern.

"Why am I doing this...? Why are we doing this?" She sighed and rubbed her temple. "We owe them nothing. None of this world makes any sense... Why would the Traveler pick me? Why do I care what it thinks?"

"You should get some sleep, you've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow, Guardian." The Ghost looked at her for a moment before disappearing in a small flash of light.

Midnight looked around for a moment in relief that she was free of the prying specter that was determined to accompany her. Eventually, she resigned to rest, packing up her gear and walking down the corridor. Even though it was still night, there were still Guardians here in spades late at night. Some compared weapons, painted their armor, bought from the vendors, or sat around and talked with one another. 'How could they all be living like this?' The thought pushed through her mind.

Eventually, she made it to the Guardian Barracks. It was surprisingly empty as it had been her first night, only a couple of bunks were occupied. Most Guardians must have their own hideouts, she guessed. This part of the city was quite old, it seemed. The Barracks were dusty and creaked as if they were centuries old. The bunks were rustic, of course, but they looked well kept by whoever took care of the building. Midnight set her gear and backpack in a locker adjacent to the bunk she'd chose and closed it before sitting on the edge of the mattress.

After a moment of taking in her surroundings, she settled herself under the blanket provided to her. The bed squeaked and swayed slowly as she tried to doze off, and she tossed and turned for almost an hour before the exhaustion finally claimed her, and she passed out in the bunk.

Midnight's dreams were of no comfort either, knowing so little about the monsters and overwhelming odds she as a Guardian faced only seemed to twist what should have been relaxing fantastical adventures in her subconscious into vivid nightmares. The horrors of the solar system, Fallen, Hive, Taken, Cabal, Vex, how could they ever hope to fight armies on their own? How had they won so far? Nothing made sense to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Midnight opened her eyes to the vague surroundings of a street near dusk. The light of the sun distant and leaving the cityscape around her in a cloudy, murky shape. She stood to look around, she wore armor like that of a steel-clad behemoth. It weighed her down as she turned to examine the skyline. New Chicago. Suddenly she heard something close behind her. She turned abruptly and instinctively, a rifle in her hands and fired.

The several shots were deafening and rang in her ears like the loud smacking of a war drum. Her eyes adjusted back to the dim surroundings, and Midnight froze where she stood. Before her was a woman and a young girl, blood beginning to flow from their wounds. It was only then the ringing in her ears faded to hear the bloodcurdling scream of the girl. She dropped the rifle and looked at her hands, they were covered in blood. Midnight screamed now too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed chapter 2! It took some time, but I found a direction I am excited to take the story and of course, I'd love to hear any feedback you may have!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! I hope you liked Chapter 1 of my story, and all constructive criticism is welcome! I'm taking the new year trying to improve my writing skills, and any help would be much appreciated. I've already begun writing Chapter 2, so I'd expect to see that coming later this week or early next week!. Happy New Year!


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